Whether it is because today's men were raised amid the women's movement of the 1970s, or because they themselves experienced the costs of that era's absent fathers, there is little question that the age of dads as full partners in parenting has arrived.

"Fathers are no longer seen as just providers or occasional babysitters, but as actively engaged in their children's emotional and daily lives, down to their routine care," says Lauren Rinelli McClain, an assistant professor of sociology at Savannah State University. She is one of more than 30 researchers and policy makers who will present papers at a conference on "Fathers and Fathering in Contemporary Contexts" later this month at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.